


My Funny Valentine

by JDSampson



Category: Project Blue Book (TV)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Short & Sweet, valentines day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22726483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JDSampson/pseuds/JDSampson
Summary: Valentine's Day in 1953 - a short and sweet drabble
Relationships: J. Allen Hynek/Michael Quinn
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27





	My Funny Valentine

My Funny Valentine

“I am NOT going to give a Valentine to Debbie Mauser!” Joel scribbled over the girl’s name on the mimeographed class list.

“You will give her one because it’s not nice to leave people out.” Mimi chose a cute paper Valentine card with a kitten cutting out a paper heart. “Give her this one.”

“No!” Joel ripped the card in two. “She’s already goofy-eyed every time she sees me. She follows me around on the playground and tries to sit with me on the bus.”

“She likes you,” Mimi said as if her son had missed that fact.

“I know she likes me. But I like Becky Ouster. What’s she going to think if I give cards to all the other girls in our class?”

“She’ll think you’re a nice person.” Mimi chose another card. This one had a joke about being a ‘purr-fect fit’. She put it on the table in front of Joel. “To Debbie, from Joel. Now. Or no model plane.”

“What? You promised! Captain Quinn is coming over on Sunday to help me build it.”

“Then you’ll have to explain to him why you lost your privileges. Because you were mean and selfish.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Allen said as he wandered into the kitchen, his nose in the paper. “It’s just a valentine.” He dropped the paper on the table next to the pile of Valentine cards in favor of pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“It is not just a valentine,” Mimi caught his eye and gave him that, ‘don’t you dare undermine me look’. “I remember what it’s like to be the one left out and it’s awful. When Debbie opens her mailbox and finds that she has less cards than anyone else, that’s going to hurt her feelings. Sign. Now!”

Joel sighed dramatically then scribbled the name Debbie as fast and as sloppily as possible. As if taking longer might actually give him cooties. “I bet Captain Quinn doesn’t have to do things he doesn’t want.”

Allen laughed without meaning to. “Captain Quinn’s entire day is made up of doing things he doesn’t want to do. That’s the military.”

Joel rolled his eyes in his own version of his mother’s ‘don’t undermine me’ expression. “Well, I bet he doesn’t have to write Valentine’s cards to dumb girls.”

That was true.

Allen casually sifted through the pile of cards left on the table. Puppies, fish, talking stalks of corn. One of a red-cheeked little boy dressed as a pilot. “You rate Sky-High with me.” He picked up his newspaper and slipped the card in between the folds.

“Just do as your mother says.”

“So you agree with her? That I should pretend to like people I don’t like just because?”

“Just because. . . you want Captain Quinn to come over on Sunday to help you with your model plane.”

“Allen!” Mimi scolded.

Allen shrugged. “If you want people to do something they don’t want to do, you just need to find the right kind of motivation.” He kissed his wife on the cheek. “I have to run an errand. I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

Quinn found the Valentine on his desk the next morning. Unsigned but he knew who had left it. He smiled as he drew his finger around the uneven edge of the card. Then he remembered that Allen had classes today and wouldn’t be in. After that, he’d be sharing a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner with Mimi at Chez Robert.

Quinn would be spending his Valentine’s Day working and then in front of the TV with a bottle of bourbon and a frozen dinner. That royally sucked. But that was the life he'd chosen to live. . . for the moment.

He tucked the card into his inner jacket pocket which ironically rested right over his heart.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, doc.” He whispered and some how he knew that miles away, in a classroom at the university, his voice was heard.

The End

**Author's Note:**

> Here's the card: http://www.mossbergco.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/FHQH2JFHCV99LJG.LARGE_.jpg


End file.
